Local Characters

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Sun 09 Sep, 2007 12:21 pm

cnosni wrote: wiggy wrote: does anyone remember the icecream man-sunny boy,he was polish i think or from that area of europe.he was well past 70,and still working.his van was pale blue and as old as the hills! Leeds 9 area?? yes matey,thats the chap,always had an eye for the young girls.....dirty old sod.

dave305 · Post by **dave305** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 1:22 am

deano_bramley wrote: fluffysheep wrote: Anyone seen the guy that gets on the bus in Belle Isle, who plays his guitar and sings on the bus? He's seen around the city centre too, playing his guitar to people in the streets. haha yh hes called chris if i remember properly i had a video of him singin to me nd my m8s on my birthday. his songs do actually make sense! Yeah he's called Chris, i like his songs they're quite good. Apparantly he lives round the corner from my ex on the aberfields

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 1:21 pm

Ian R P wrote: Ok then,What about the guy that used to go round pubs doing Portraits on brown paper bags? Does he still do them? I'm sure it was him on phoenix nights.Also theres Peter (the sheriff) who used to hide behind chairs in the Broadway pub shooting at people saying 'John wayne's coming'.I used to see him until recently, but was told he had sadly passed away.That git with the guitar is a nuisance. he serenaded me on my birthday last year goaded on by my so called mates, then got narky when I refused to pay him!!Also, what happened to Evening Post Vendors that used to shout in funny voices? have they stopped that now? Health and safety etc.There was the one on Commercial Street that was always having a terrible day. He was tremendous ! His shout of "I'm having a terrible day "I can hear him now .

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 1:43 pm

JanCee wrote: I remember a lot of correspondence about Woodbine Lizzie in the YEP and also about some huge copper known as Rocking Horse.A lot of letters in the YEP were written by someone who signed himself 'Fresh Air' of Kippax. Or I might be getting him mixed up with Sam Wood. Durr, confused meself now. Edit: or was Fresh Air from Swillington? It was " Fresh Air , Shadwell " . He would write regularly to the Yorkshire Evening Post complaining about smoking on buses .

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 1:56 pm

Around Meanwood and Headingley in the 1960s there was a guy who dressed in a cowboy outfit and rode around on a palamino horse .I was once in Safeway in Headingley and saw him in there buying groceries . When I went outside " parked " in the lay-by in front of the store was a western stage-coach with four horses between the shafts .

stevief · Post by **stevief** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 10:05 pm

There was a character from the Burley area called Harry the Glove.He used to frequent the Haddon and the Cardigan.At one time he would have been known as a 'gentleman thief' because he neverburgled private homes just businesses.He shared a house with a woman in the area until she died,rather naively he thought the property would then be his.Unbeknown to him,his partner had leftthe house to a sister and her butch companion.He was promptlyevicted.In a fit of pique and with the new occupants in residence,he smashed a window with a brick.Thinking it was honours even,he went to the Haddon for his pint.The girls thought differently,followed him in and gave him a good hiding.It would never have happened to Raffles!

Brandy · Post by **Brandy** » Thu 04 Oct, 2007 12:25 am

lol nice little story there stevief.

pid · Post by **pid** » Thu 04 Oct, 2007 10:48 am

eh up stevief . i think it was actually barry the glove (Barry McCarthy) your thinking of unless there was a harry too ! imagine that ! however i knew him as a regular in the chemic tavern in woodhouse . barry was always well turned out in a jaunty hat or implausable mixtire of clothing like a blazer and rugby shirt or two different halves of a tracksuit and would greet ( pester ) everyone who came in the chemic on a lunch time with sayings like "now then hows yer bowels""av yer got that tenner you owe me ?" and the mind bending " am i applicable in this auspicious occasion ?" he once came in as the draymen were doing our delivery and shouted "bloody hell theres a fella outside dropping his kegs !!! " which cracked me up . but he did have his dark side when hed had too much one and one (half a cider and a brandy and pep ) and this resulted on him being imposed with a five o clock curfew at the pub whwich he took with good grace as in the cold light of day he knew exactly how much of a git he could be ! sadly barry died earlier this year just short of his 60th birthday and when we all heard the news a lot of people were surprisingly upset . we all knew barry had been a sod ! in his earlier life but for the three or four years we knew him wed all grown quite fond of the old bugger. i know he used to drink in the haddon as you said and the little park and newlands too so maybe other folk on here will have tales of the glove !!!! R I P . B T G

stevief · Post by **stevief** » Thu 04 Oct, 2007 9:32 pm

pid wrote: eh up stevief . i think it was actually barry the glove (Barry McCarthy) your thinking of unless there was a harry too ! imagine that ! however i knew him as a regular in the chemic tavern in woodhouse . barry was always well turned out in a jaunty hat or implausable mixtire of clothing like a blazer and rugby shirt or two different halves of a tracksuit and would greet ( pester ) everyone who came in the chemic on a lunch time with sayings like "now then hows yer bowels""av yer got that tenner you owe me ?" and the mind bending " am i applicable in this auspicious occasion ?" he once came in as the draymen were doing our delivery and shouted "bloody hell theres a fella outside dropping his kegs !!! " which cracked me up . but he did have his dark side when hed had too much one and one (half a cider and a brandy and pep ) and this resulted on him being imposed with a five o clock curfew at the pub whwich he took with good grace as in the cold light of day he knew exactly how much of a git he could be ! sadly barry died earlier this year just short of his 60th birthday and when we all heard the news a lot of people were surprisingly upset . we all knew barry had been a sod ! in his earlier life but for the three or four years we knew him wed all grown quite fond of the old bugger. i know he used to drink in the haddon as you said and the little park and newlands too so maybe other folk on here will have tales of the glove !!!! R I P . B T G Hi pid.Nice story.You're quite correct it was Barry.I got the story from a guy at work and he got it from someone else.I'm surprised I remembered as much.I was going to edit this evening but you beat me to it.What would we do without characters like that!

LS13 · Post by **LS13** » Sun 07 Oct, 2007 8:49 pm

wiggy wrote: has anyone heard of harry bendon? he was the window cleaner for the market buildings and half of town by all accounts.he was also a real tough nut scott,well known in all the town pubs.whilst cleaning windows on vicar lane,a friend shouted hello to him from the top of a bus,harry simply picked up his ladder,propped it against the bus and held a lengthy conversation at eye level with the top deck,bringing the trafic into chaos!now thats a character. My dad worked Cleaning windows with Harry as a young bloke in the late 40's early 50's. He said that Harry regularly used to do the 'ladders to the tram window routine'. He was also a fantastic singer and did the pubs and clubs around Leeds. My mum used to say he was a really handsome bloke--a bit of a heart throb at the time! Unfortunately he became a down and out and I used to see him round Leeds in the early 80's, usually looking like he'd had a few!. I remember one year at Xmas, Look North did a profile on him sleeping rough as an 'other side of xmas' feature. I remember my mum sat with tears in her eyes looking at what he'd become. I believe he died in the late 80s.